Abstract:
Best science and best theological reflection – the two belongs together for the sake of both.
This is argued for in the exposition of the justification of friendship with Darwin (best science
as evolutionary science) which is argumentatively connected from a Christian perspective to
the praiseworthiness of God as creator (best theological reflection). Concretely, this implies
making theologically sense of the important contemporary contribution of evolutionary
biology on the origin of life and the descriptions of life. This endeavour necessitates a critical
re-reading not only of Darwinian abuse and misperceptions but also of the larger historical
context of the aforegoing scientific revolutions and their aftermath. Therefore, both discourses
of abuse on the extreme spectrum of reflection on creation and life are critically addressed,
namely creationism or Intelligent Design and bio-fundamentalism. As hermeneutical tool of
discernment, the argument of evolutionary re-conceptualisation is unfolded as a distinction
between an official story and alternative story to highlight not only the exciting implications
of the latter but also especially as act of the de-domestication of our understanding of God as
the praiseworthy God of creation.
Description:
Two contributions by
the author have been
re-worked for the article.
The first contribution is
from the Expert Seminar
(September 2011). The
seminar is a collaborative
project between the
Departments of Dogmatics
of the Faculty of Theology,
University of Pretoria, and
the Protestantse Universiteit,
Utrecht, The Netherlands.
The second contribution is a
paper that was read at the
third Neuroscience Day of
the University of Pretoria
(May 2012).
